Stargazer
by EAP615
Summary: Two close friends bond over different views on a similar interest.


**With school out from heavy ice, I was tempted to make more stories. This one was meant to be a little more deeper then most of my other fics, but don't be too disappointed if it is a huge failure. This is again based of a fantastic fan art called 'Stargazer' made by aceronline. You can find it on deviantart.**

**I don't own RWBY or the cover art. That belongs to the talents of Monty Oum/Roosterteeth and aceronline respectively. **

* * *

Ruby had always loved star gazing. Her favorite fairy tales of her youth were about space and stars and the moon and how it ended up in its cracked state. She also loved astronomy, to the surprise of those close to her, as they always thought that she wouldn't have the attention span for such a subject, and her blonde sister was openly distasteful of the subject. But that did not faze her. She always loved to look upon the stars and allow her thoughts to wander, which is exactly what she was doing now.

She was lying on the grass in the Beacon fields with her head resting on her hands. She was still in her school uniform, as classes usually let of on the brink of dusk, and Ruby had wanted to catch the stars as they appeared into the in the now deep-blue sky. She was in a stage of absolute peace, as she usually was when gazing upon the luscious stars and skies above her.

Her sense of peace would be increased at the presence of a close friend. A clumsy, blonde, close friend.

* * *

Jaune had been pacing around Beacon's parameters for some time now, but he was not expecting Ruby to be lying down on the grass, her mind apparently somewhere else. At first, Jaune intended to leave her alone, not wanting to derail her thoughts, but she turned towards him and smiled brightly and greeted him, "Hey, Jaune."

"Hey, Ruby." he greeted back with a returned smile. "What're you doing?"

"Stargazing. It helps calm my nerves."

"Are you nervous about something?"

"No, no. I just wanted to check the stars. They are usually beautiful this time of night."

Jaune looked up at the dark sky to see that the stars were rather beautiful on this evening. "Mind if I join you?"

"Not at all." Honestly, Ruby was glad Jaune had showed up. She was also quite fond of talking to someone close to her while gazing upon stars. Most of the time in the past, that person was Yang. Ruby always knew that Yang found stars uninteresting, yet she always went with Ruby when asked to. Jaune had found a spot near Ruby and placed his hands on his stomach as he looked at the shining stars covering the sky above them. "How long have you been out here?" he asked his companion.

"Not long. Maybe an hour."

"An hour of you staring at stars? I didn't expect that."

Ruby turned to Jaune, "What do you mean?"

"I just mean that, with your short attention span, I didn't think that you and long periods of star gazing would go well together."

Ruby smiled at that, "You're not the only one. No one ever expected it from me either. Not even Yang or my parents. They didn't think that I would find anything so fascinating about stars."

"What _do _you find so interesting about stars?"

Ruby had to pause for a few moments at that. It was so difficult to explain her intense interest at the stars and skies that held them. When asked about in her younger years, she would always reply 'Because they're pretty.' , but as she aged, she knew that there was some other element to those shining balls of gas millions of miles in the sky that just _captivated _her like nothing before. She thought about it for a long time before forming her answer.

"Just…the simplicity of them. How you can stare off into them and not think of anything. And how you can never feel like you wasted time looking at them. The thought of them just really appeals to me. "

She hesitated greatly and her face fell as she looked back up at the sky before adding, "… and they remind me of someone."

This caught Jaune's attention immediately. Curiosity getting the best of him, he asked, "Who?"

Ruby figured he would ask which is why she hesitated. Her mind was filled with images of a grave with the writing:

_Summer Rose_

_Thus I kindly scatter_

She didn't like talking about it to anyone, not even Yang. As much as she liked and trusted Jaune, she still would not make him an exception. Not yet.

Jaune took her prolonged silence as her answer, "I guess you don't want to talk about it."

"No," Ruby returned with a hint of melancholy in her voice while still keeping her eyes on the sky above, "I don't."

Jaune had been surprised at Ruby's words. He hadn't expected such a deep thought to come from the girl, as he never thought that the fellow team leader would have a thought process like that concerning the stars. He couldn't say that she was alone in thinking very deeply concerning stars though.

"I love stars too, but for a whole other reason."

Ruby finally turned her head to the blonde boy, looking him in the eyes. "You love stars too?"

Jaune's smile returned to his face, "Oh, yeah. We used to get lots of stars where I come from. My family used to go out on all of these camping trips, and we would just look at all of the stars and constellations. My parents probably thought I only liked them because they were shiny, other people probably did too. It's not very common for a clumsy blonde kid to be very interested in stars."

Ruby giggled lightly at his small joke, and he smiled widely himself before continuing.

"But I was always fond of them because of their complexity. I always think of things like, 'Why do we lose ourselves in stars?', 'How did they get made in the first place?', 'What will happen to them?, things like that. There are just so many unanswered questions about them, and I just can't help but think about the answers."

Ruby was both surprised and not surprised at the boy's statement. She was at first surprised at learning of the thought process of the same boy who _still _wore bunny pajamas. Then again, in some unusual way, it made sense. Jaune was always detail-oriented with his decisions and always planned his way through a conflict. He definitely had a much more cautious thought process than the devil-may-care way of planning she was notorious for.

"…and the stars remind me of someone too." Jaune's smile had vanished from his features and looked up to the sky as his thoughts turned to memories. Memories of a time Jaune desperately wanted to forget. Memories of a swift fire engulfing anything in its path. Memories of screaming of fear and agony. Memories of crying in a hospital wait room from the sound of tragic news. There was a reason why his family never went on camping trips again. As was there a reason why Jaune added in, "And I don't want to talk about it."

The statements were so abrupt that it took several moments for Ruby to come up with a proper response.

"Ok." She settled with. Jaune had not pushed when she was being bothered by something, so she wanted to do him the common courtesy be not pushing him when something was obviously bothering him.

When Jaune turned to look at Ruby, she immediately turned away and looked towards the sky, a mad blush filling her face. When she looked at Jaune, the moonlight had held his face in just the angle, making his pale skin and blonde hair lightly glow, and his dark blue eyes looked like they were _illuminating._ He was handsome, Ruby couldn't deny that he was, (Yang knew it to, as she would constantly tease her about having a 'hot boyfriend'.), but in the right lighting, she was at a loss of words to describe him. Little did she know that Jaune was turning away from her, a blush creeping upon his face as well.

Ruby was, by a landslide, the cutest girl in Beacon. No one could deny that, even Professor Ozpin had called her adorable upon meeting her for the first time. And with those _adorable puppy eyes_, Jaune could say she had easily earned the title. But in this moonlight, the way it lit up her face and those amazing silver eyes captivated him.

The two looked towards each other again, blush still painted across their faces. But this time, they did not look away. For a while, they just laid there staring into each other's eyes. Ruby then subconsciously rolled over and laid her head on Jaune's shoulder and laid her hand on Jaune's chest so that she was laying half on top of him. Jaune also subconsciously held her head with one hand while the other held her hand that lay on his chest. They remained in this position for a long time. Even when they came to their senses they still did not push each other away. Actually, they were both very comfortable like this. Just holding each other while watching the darkening night sky. Although they were both were lightly blushing, they both also felt a sense of peace within each other's company.

They finally parted at the sound of an intruding voice greeting them, "Mr. Arc, Ms. Rose."

Jaune and Ruby quickly turned their heads to see Ozpin standing nearby, his trademark can in hand while drinking from his coffee mug. The two scrambled over each other in order to try and stand up at attention, blushes increasing at being caught.

"G-G-Good evening, s-sir." They stammered simultaneously.

The professor took another sip from his mug before replying, "It is a fine evening, isn't it?" He motioned to the two of them with a ghost of a small smile playing at his lips. "You two seem to be enjoying it."

The two in question blushed even more at his obvious remark about the two holding each other. "I recommend you two head back to your respective rooms now. Curfew will begin momentarily."

"Y-Yes sir." Ruby stammered as the two headed for the dorm area. When they disappeared from the professor's sight, he let out a light chuckle as he said under his breath, "Young love."

* * *

Ruby and Jaune walked to their dorms in silence. It wasn't out of spite or some underlying hard feelings, they both were just at a lack of things to say for now. They finally spoke to each other when they reached their rooms.

"I … I had a really great time with you tonight, Jaune." Ruby quietly spoke to Jaune with a timid smile.

"Oh." Jaune was unprepared for the girl's comment, and he spoke back, "I had fun too."

The two exchanged their goodnights, but as Jaune turned to head into his dorm, Ruby grabbed Jaune by the shoulders to balance herself as she stood on her tip-toes and quickly placed a kiss on Jaune's unexpected lips. Before Jaune could do anything in reply, Ruby turned around and headed into her dorm room without saying another word to the shocked blonde.

Jaune just stood there in the hallway in shock, still attempting to process the recent events. He couldn't have been in that position for more than a few minutes, but to him, it felt like several hours. Jaune finally snapped out of his trance and walked into his own dorm room.

As the two lay in their beds, they both thought of how their relationship was similar to the stars.

So simple yet so complex for many different reasons, but, no matter how you looked at it, it was all so beautiful.

* * *

**And there we go. Again, sorry if it was awful. I just wanted to try and get out of my comfort zone.**

**I intended to make Ruby and Jaune's love of stars to be somewhat based on their characters' relationship. Both of them are different from each other for different reasons, but at the core, they are both kind, brave, smart, honest people. **

**Well, I'm done here. Hope you enjoyed! (And sorry if you didn't)**


End file.
